Danny's New Neighbours (follows #3646 p. 183)
What breakfast brought was the realisation of how small the living-in population really was. Besides Jack Derbyshire and myself, there was only John Newboult, the 608 Squadron Adjutant, our M.O. (F/O Hamlett), F/O Keith Marfell (Secretarial), and (later) one or two NS Secretarial Branch P/Os (one was a Smith of Smith's Instruments}. There may have been one or two others, but memory fades.
RAF Thornaby was unusual - may even have been unique - in that the whole family of Auxiliaries was together on one Station. In order of importance, then, we start with 608 Squadron, (motto: "Omnibus Ungulis", loosely rendered as: "All Balls"), with Vampires (originally IIIs, but Vs later - what was the difference ? - I flew my first V in Apl '52, but they may have come in before that). Their C.O. was a S/Ldr F.A. Robinson, to be almost immediately succeeded by S/Ldr G.A. Martin. He, his Adj John Newboult, whom we have already met, and the F/O Training Officer (whom I shall just call "Mike", for the moment), were all Regulars. All the other pilots were Auxiliaries, as was their Engineer Officer (John ? Oliver), and their M.O. (Dr Ian Stewart).
Next in line was No. 2608 (Auxiliary) Squadron of the RAF Regt. Their only Regular was Trevor Rhys-Davies, who IIRC, doubled as Adjutant and Training Officer. But his C.O. was an Auxiliary S/Ldr, whom I don't remember ever seeing, and whose name I've forgotten (if I ever knew).
Bringing up the rear was my No. 3608 (Fighter Control) Unit. The only Regulars were Bob Schroder (Training Officer) and myself. We had an Auxiliary S/Ldr as C.O. - or would have when they (and mark the "they") decided who to appoint in place of the departing incumbent.
Thornaby suited everybody. 608 had the place to themselves (there were no other flying units) with their Vampires and a Meteor T7 for I/F and ratings. The Station had a Harvard and a TM, which 608 looked after. The Squadron also had a big black and yellow thirties' Rolls-Royce saloon as its aircrew runabout, a magnificent thing with partition, speaking tube, a little silver flower vase in the back, Bedford cord upholstery and enough room for them all with a bit of a push.
The Regiment was well placed. Their Depôt was (then) at RAF Catterick, only about 25 miles away, and a bit further out they had all Catterick Garrison to play around in.
It suited me fine. At that time the policy was that officers on Ground duties had to find for themselves whatever flying happened to be at hand to keep in practice on an operational type. I was luckier than most, with the Vampires on the spot.
On 1st December '51, 608's Boss (S/Ldr Robinson) let me take one of theirs for the first time . My brief was simple: keep doing rollers until we tell you to stop. I'd always liked the Vampire, it was simple, vice-free and docile. The forward view was perfect (after a lifetime of taildraggers). It was very easy to land, you just had to be careful not to get the nose so high as to scrape the tail booms on the runway.
It seems that he went up to the Tower, got out the binoculars and watched carefully. I reeled off four or five greasers on the trot before he pronounced himself satisfied, with the minor comment that I was a bit slow each time in getting the power back on (I didn't think so). I became "Silversand 21" (R/T) and took my place in society.
In mid-week (when the Auxiliaries would be away) I see I did a number of airtests for them, and even at weekends it looks as if they fitted me in when it suited them: I have entries like "GCI famil", "Blue 2 PIs" and "Battle Formation" but, apart fom one occasion when I landed as Mike's wingman (he was pushing his luck !), I have absolutely no recollection of these flights (except that you could smell the steelworks and ICI 30 miles out to sea), but would hazard a guess that I would be the "hare" for their "hounds".
A Tale of Fortune and Misfortune next time.
Goodnight, all, Danny 42C.
You never know.